There is a number of days above which renting is a mistake, and it is lower than most people expect.
The daily rate
In greater Phoenix a serviced balloon is $247.25 a day and a blimp is $297.25. That covers the balloon, the helium, installation, weather monitoring and removal. Tucson is $30 more. Saturday and Sunday are billed as a pair.
You touch nothing. That is what you are paying for.
The purchase
A 13-foot blimp is $975 blank, $1,512 with lettering. Its first fill is about 170 cubic feet of helium, roughly $255. Call it $1,767 to be flying.
After that you are topping off about one percent a day, which is a few dollars, plus your own time putting it up and taking it down.
Where they cross
$1,767 divided by $297.25 is about six days. Six serviced days and you have spent what the blimp would have cost.
So: a one-weekend event, rent. A three-day trade show, rent. Anything you intend to fly repeatedly through a year, buy, and it is not close.
The honest caveat
Buying transfers work to you: the gas account, the daily put-up, the judgement call when the wind gets up.
Some businesses genuinely do not want that, and for them the daily rate is not a premium, it is the product. But make that choice knowingly rather than by default.
Ask for a quote. Call 1-800-791-1445 or email sales@arizonaballoon.com and tell us the size and whether you want it printed.
More at arizonaballoon.com.